The Third Man

Martins eventually returns to Calloway’s office, shaken by his encounter with a man he’d thought dead. Calloway remarks that “he hadn’t come to me at once with his story—only the danger to Anna Schmidt tossed him back into my office, like something the sea washed up, tousled, unshaven, haunted by an experience he couldn’t understand” (59). Martins describes how Lime appeared to suddenly vanish near a newspaper kiosk.

Martins tries to return to Anna’s but discovers that the International Patrol, which the Russians chaired at the time, have arrested her for having false papers. Calloway reflects that these jurisdictional politics mean that if he wishes to arrest Kurtz, he needs him to enter the British Zone of the city.

A subordinate of Calloway’s alerts him of Anna’s arrest over her false papers. This subordinate was present during her arrest, as the International Patrols always had members from the French, American, Russian, and British forces. Calloway is therefore unsurprised when Martins calls him, which improves Martins’s general faith in policing. Calloway arranges for Anna’s release by intercepting the patrol at a checkpoint, assuring the Russians that he’ll check Anna’s papers, and contesting their right to arrest someone who lives in his jurisdiction.